Marked for Daniel Martinez
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Squad7 Jun 2027
Daniel Martinez damages knee ligaments — 15 days out
The words a physio says slowly. 15 days is what the club will announce and everybody who has heard this diagnosis before knows the number is the least of it: the knee comes back before the player does.
Match5 Jun 2027
9 without a win now, and the ground has developed the special quiet of a crowd that expects the worst. One scrappy 1-0 would cure most of it; that is the maddening part.
Match7 Jun 2027
14 points, and a fixture list that is running out. The mathematics are not yet cruel, but they are no longer kind.
Boardroom7 Jun 2027
The board’s statement ran to three sentences and one of them mentioned results. Junior Cordova has managed long enough to translate: win soon, or the next statement is shorter.
Boardroom7 Jun 2027
The silence upstairs is getting loud at Yaracuyanos
Nobody on the board has said anything against the manager, which is the point — they have stopped saying anything for him either.
Market7 Jun 2027
“I have given everything here and I need a new challenge.” The request is formal, and the relationship will never be quite the same again.
Squad7 Jun 2027
José Torres and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Match5 Jun 2027
The goals have deserted Yaracuyanos
3 matches, no goals, and a training ground that has tried everything. It will end — droughts always do — but nobody at Yaracuyanos can tell you which week it ends in.
Transfer targets7 Jun 2027
Yaracuyanos asked and Monagas said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Squad31 May 2027
23 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Yaracuyanos lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
The terraces31 May 2027
The mood at Yaracuyanos has turned into something else
Supporters who sing when it goes badly are supporters. Supporters who gather afterwards are a problem, and everybody inside the building knows which of the two this now is.
Match29 May 2027
0‑3 to Caracas, and it was every bit as bad as the number suggests. There are defeats you argue about and defeats you apologise for; this was the second kind.
Match29 May 2027
8 matches without a win for Yaracuyanos
The run now stands at 8, and the questions being asked around Yaracuyanos are no longer polite ones.
Squad31 May 2027
Víctor Viez and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
The dugout31 May 2027
This is not rotation. Brayan Suárez has not been in the manager's plans for some time, and nobody at Yaracuyanos is pretending otherwise.
Squad31 May 2027
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and José Torres was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
The dugout31 May 2027
The manager makes an example of Jhon Aponza
“If you cannot run for the shirt, somebody else will wear it.” No name was used and none was needed; every player in that room knew who it was for.
Boardroom31 May 2027
The manager kept them in and said what needed saying. A response is expected on Saturday, and if it does not come the questions move upstairs.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad24 May 2027
Daniel Martinez damages knee ligaments — 30 days out
The words a physio says slowly. 30 days is what the club will announce and everybody who has heard this diagnosis before knows the number is the least of it: the knee comes back before the player does.
Market24 May 2027
“This is not anger. I have thought about it for months, and nothing that has happened lately changed my mind.” The request is on a desk at Yaracuyanos, and it is not being withdrawn.
Match22 May 2027
No end in sight to Yaracuyanos's wait for a win
7 matches now without a victory, and the excuses have worn thinner than the patience. Somebody at Yaracuyanos has to find a result from somewhere.
Squad24 May 2027
José Torres was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
Player ratings24 May 2027
Successful dribbles: 19. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Squad24 May 2027
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Jader Córdoba was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
The dugout24 May 2027
There is no complaint available here and everybody involved knows it, which does not make the walk to the bench any shorter. Form is the only currency in football that cannot be borrowed against.
Boardroom24 May 2027
The accounts make uncomfortable reading. Wages first and ambition second is the order of business at Yaracuyanos now.
The dugout24 May 2027
“It is not the end of the world and it is not good enough. Both of those are true.” The manager, after a 0‑0 draw, said the honest thing and then went to say it again inside.